On the Way Home
by CurlyQues
Summary: Levy McGarden is walking home after a failed mission when she meets an exceed in a pink frog suit. Oneshot.


Levy McGarden was walking home from the train station after a failed mission. It wasn't all her fault, it was just that her employer hadn't taken the fact that his "treasure map" was in fact, not written in an ancient language, but had been found by his two-year old nephew who was a bit liberal with the ink pen left around well. As expected, the man didn't believe her, and after yelling about mages these days and such, slammed the door in her face.

Her arms felt tired with the weight of the messenger bag she was carrying, so Levy sat down on a bench. _How am I going to tell Lu-chan _this _one? _she thought to herself. The sounds of the clocks in the square ringing 3 o'clock told Levy that there was still time to put off heading back to the guild, but she didn't feel like reading. With the August sun warming her face, Levy gazed into the distance, daydreaming.

"Excuse me, Miss Fairy, can Fro sit here?" a voice chirruped, jarring Levy back to reality. She recognized the green exceed in the pink frog suit as belonging to Rogue Cheney, Sabertooth's Shadow Dragonslayer.

"Umm... uhh… sure…" Levy confusedly stammered. All the other benches around her were empty, she noticed, looking around. _Why does she… he… want to sit here? All the other benches are open _Levy thought. _How long have I been sitting here?_

Fro frowned after noticing Levy staring at the empty benches. "Rogue told Fro to wait for him to finish his mission, and Fro is lonely."

"Oh… I'm sorry…" Levy said, feeling guilty.

"Miss Fairy, what's your favorite color?" Fro asked suddenly, perking up.

"I like orange, I guess," Levy replied with a smile.

"What's your favorite food? Fro likes fish!"

The conversation started, mostly with Fro asking questions and Levy answering them. More time passed, but Levy was enjoying the conversation, as Fro reminded her of Happy, so she didn't notice the passing time. Fro had some pretty creative questions to ask.

"If Levy could be a fish, what fish would you be?"

"What? I wouldn't be a fish if I had the option!" Levy said, a bit weirded-out by the question.

"What fish?"

Suddenly, a quiet voice asked "Frosch?".

"Ah! Rogue!" Frosch cried happily, jumping down from the bench. "Miss Fairy, Levy, kept Frosch company!"

Rogue gave the exceed a small grin and turned to Levy. "Thanks…"

"Don't mention it, Frosch is fun to talk to," Levy said. She'd hate to admit it, but the fact that a mage of Sabertooth, which Fairy Tail had rough relations with, was making her nervous.

Levy then expected Rogue and Frosch to leave, but they just… stood there. The silence got awkward pretty quickly. Why weren't they leaving?

"So… how did the mission go?" Levy asked Rogue.

"It was simple, as it was expected to be," Rogue quipped.

_Jeez, that sounded arrogant._ Levy thought, looking at Rogue, who now looked uncomfortable.

"Um… I mean… that's why I took… that particular mission… it paid well and looked easy," Rogue stammered, flushing.

"Ah, okay. I was returning from a mission myself when I ran into Frosch," Levy giggled nervously, glancing at the exceed, who looked almost… smug?

"How did that go?" Rogue asked, relieved to change the topic.

"It didn't go too well; my employer had a bit of a temper…" Levy replied.

Levy gave Rogue a small smile and he stared back at her. She was shocked by his resemblance to Gajeel, with his slanted red eyes and black hair. Rogue just seemed a bit less gruff than Gajeel did. His stare was especially similar to Gajeel, it was just as intense, and made her feel uncomfortable.

Rogue cleared his throat, "Well, that's too bad… um… I guess we should be going, Frosch, it's dinnertime anyways."

"Wait, what time is it?" Levy asked, panicked. _How could I forget the time? Three hours, Darnit!_

"It's about quarter past six. Are you expected somewhere?" Rogue asked.

"No, but my teammates will worry. I've really got to go." Levy quipped.

"Thank you, Miss Fairy! Frosch had fun talking with you!" Frosch chirped.

"Me too, Frosch," Levy replied with a grin. She turned around and started walking in the direction of her guild.

"Um, Levy?" Rogue called out to her, and Levy stopped and glanced back to the dragonslayer and his exceed.

"Yeah?" She asked in a clipped tone.

Rogue flushed again. "I'm sorry the mission didn't work out. I'm sure you'll be fine next time, everyone gets a bad client every once in a while…"

"Thank… thank you…" Levy's voice trailed off.

"It's… it's just you seemed upset is all," he said. Rogue looked embarrassed for some reason. Did he really care? _I guess he isn't a bad person after all, even if he is Gajeel's rival… _Levy thought to herself. She gave him a small smile, nodded, and turned to walk back to the guild.

Once she was a bit farther away, Levy heard Frosch gleefully shout something like "Frosch thinks that Rogue _likes_ Miss Fairy!" followed by a "FROSCH!"

The petite girl quickened her pace, her face turning a deep red.


End file.
